This invention relates to mirrors and, in particular, to a mirror adapted to being attached to a child car safety seat.
The xe2x80x9cChild Passenger Protection Actxe2x80x9d which became law in 1983, required that an infant travelling in a vehicle be secured in a safety seat that is itself fastened to the center of the rear seat of the vehicle by means of seat belts. Updates to the law will shortly require these car seats to be anchored by a tether strap to the structure of the car itself. It has become common practice, as a result of the recommendations of child safety advocates, to position a child car safety seat such that an infant faces the rear of the vehicle. Positioning the infant facing the rear seat is intended to protect the infant in the event of an accident by insuring that the infant will be projected toward the soft car seat back. As the infant becomes an older and larger baby, the child car safety seat is positioned so that the baby and safety seat are facing forward.
Child car safety seats are often constructed with side panels that can obstruct any view of the infant when the infant is in the car seat. This, plus the rear-facing orientation of a safety seat, makes it very difficult for a driver to check on the condition of a rearwardly facing infant. If the infant is crying or otherwise giving indications of distress, the driver, if alone, is put in the position of having to stop the car in order to check on the infant. This can be inconvenient at best, and dangerous at worst if there is no safe roadside location to which the driver may safely drive the vehicle. If there is another passenger in the car, the passenger must turn her/his body and lean back over the front seat. In either case, the situation is dangerous or inconvenient. If the infant is quiet, it is important that the driver or passenger be able to monitor the infant to ensure that nothing untoward has happened to the infant. With front-facing safety seats, there is often a problem directly viewing the baby because of the configuration of the vehicle containing the safety seat.
The present invention provides a mirror which is primarily intended for direct attachment to a child car safety seat. The mirror of the present invention is adapted to being attached to the car seat itself, the car seat base, the car seat canopy, handle or any of the straps holding the car seat in place. The mirror is attached to the car seat by means of a flexible stem thereby permitting the user to easily bend and position the mirror in the most advantageous position. To soften and reduce the starkness of a mirror to a child, a fabric cover with elastic edging is positioned over the back of the mirror and flexible stem. The fabric cover may have a stuffed figure attached thereto.
It is, therefore, a primary purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, to provide a new, improved, inexpensive, easy-to-install device by which the driver of a vehicle, may easily observe a child in a child car safety seat placed in the rear seat of the vehicle.
This together with other objects of the invention, along with various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated a preferred embodiment of the invention.